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I stop and hold in a groan. Of course, she heard everything. She is my fly on the wall for a reason. I shake my head and lean against her doorframe.
“She provoked me. I only responded in kind.”
Ava bends over her desk, a white lab coat buttoned over her body, her hair pulled back in a tight bun. She wears safety goggles that make her eyes look bigger than they are, and purple latex gloves. In her hand is a small pipette that carefully deposits some kind of yellow liquid into one of the beakers on her desk.
“Sounded like you did a lot of lecturing.”
“I did not.”
“Killian, you lecture when you mean to explain. I keep telling you that.”
I frown at her. “She wants to go back to her father.”
“Of course she does. That’s the only family she’s ever known.”
I put my weight into my shoulder, mulling over Ava’s words for a moment.
“Maybe I don’t understand her as well as I thought I did. I’ve been watching her for a while. I thought she would be happy to be out from under their thumb.”
“Again, they’re the only people she’s ever known. Of course, she’s going to not want to be here. It’s not her normal.”
“She’s safe here.”
“Yeah.” Ava looks up at me. “I know that but she doesn’t. To her, you’re some stranger that grabbed her and locked her inside a house.”
I hate that. I’m not a stranger. At least, I don’t feel like one. Antonella and I are connected whether she wants to admit it to herself or not. Even if I hadn’t gotten entangled in her business like this, our paths would still have crossed at some point.
Now that she and I are on bad terms… I feel some sort of guilt. I don’t want her to hate being here. I don't want her to feel like a caged bird, no matter how much she wants to believe she is.
Despite me being the mastermind behind this entire plan, it wasn’t my intention to harm her in the process. Sure, I need her in order to procure the deal, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to let them abuse or hurt her—that I would do those things myself.
Using her as a bargaining chip doesn’t mean that it would come down to me selling her like a pig to the slaughterhouse.
“I suppose I shouldn’t have insulted her.”
“No shit. It wasn’t the smartest move.”
I snort. “Thank you, Ava. Your words are very encouraging.”
She shrugs at me and looks back down at the beakers in front of her. “Look, you’ve got plenty of time to make it up to her. She’s going to be here until you take care of the situation you’ve created. At least try not to fight her in the meantime.”
“Okay, I’ll try to do that to the best of my abilities.”
“Good. Make sure you carry that positive attitude into your meeting, too.”
I shift against the doorframe to cross my arms. “I’ll be fine.”
She points at me with the pipette. “You need to keep your cool. I know it will be tempting to pull your gun on him and exact your revenge, but we need that deal first.”
My anger coils within me. The idea of putting a gun to Marco Ambrosino’s head fills me with immense satisfaction. More than I care to admit. I hope that when that day finally does come, I’ll be able to savor it.
“I will,” is all I tell her.
“Good.”
She nods to herself, satisfied by my answer, and goes back to her poison.
“Make sure you watch Antonella like a hawk. I don’t need her snooping around here unchecked.”
